Outcast of Equestria 2: All Hellgates Breaks Loose!
by wweather
Summary: It happens in one night. A ferret they thought was dead comes back to life. All the ponies in Ponyville have been lied to. Contains spoilers for the first Outcast of Equestria story, so it's better to read that one first.
1. Chapter 1

Swartt Sixclaw was in hell- literally! In the lowest circle of Tartarus, which some creatures call Hellgates, the ferret Warlord was being punished for his wicked life on Earth by having his intestines ripped out and being strangled by them, while his arms were constantly ripping off his own flesh and having it regrow while acid poured over him and his flesh regrew again, all the while having his memory wiped every few seconds so he never got used to the pain. He was screaming in agony the whole time.

Then suddenly, one day, all the torture stopped. Swartt Sixclaw looked up to see a peculiar creature walking towards him. He looked like a pentagram of a bunch of different animals. He had a deer antler, a goat leg, a bat wing, a long snakelike tail, and the head of a pony.

"My name is Discord," said the creature. "You're not happy here, are you, Veil?"

"Why did ya call me Veil?" Swartt questioned. "My name's Swartt Sixclaw!"

Discord chuckled. "It'll come back to you, or maybe it won't. How'd you like a chance to walk the earth again?"

"Ya mean come back ta life? Yeah, dat'd be great. I could finally kill dat stripedog, dat badger, Sunflash da Mace- or as I like ta call him, Scumtripe!"

"Well, you'll get a chance to kill your badger if you do what I say." Discord held up a locket. "This locket has your soul in it. If you betray me I will destroy it, but if you obey me and the person I'm havin' you work for then I'll give it to you and you'll be invincible."

Swartt laughed evilly. "Sure, I'll do what ya say."

"Good. So I'll send you back to Earth for a short time so you can do a little job for me. Once you've done that you can go and kill the badger, but not before."

Swartt listened as Discord explained what he wanted the ferret to do. Then Discord opened up a portal back to the land of the living and Swartt stepped into it.


	2. Chapter 2

Princess Twilight Sparkle stared into the hole in the ground.

"I came into work today and there it was," the brown earth pony next to her explained.

The brown pony's name was Digger and he had a shovel cutie mark. He was the Ponyville groundskeeper, and he was also in charge of the cemetery. "We've got grave robbers on the loose," he said.

"I don't know if you can call them grave robbers," Twilight said. "Vandals, maybe. After all, nothing was ever actually buried here. This grave was just symbolic."

Twilight well remembered Veil, the ferret her friend Fluttershy had adopted some time ago. Everypony knew Veil was the son of the evil Warlord Swartt Sixclaw, but they decided to give him a chance, hoping if Fluttershy raised him he'd turn out to be good. Instead, Veil had grown into a loud and nasty ferret, always lying, stealing, cheating, and creating bad feeling among the ponies. He finally went too far and ended up poisoning Princess Celestia. Celestia recovered, but her sister Luna was so angry that she banished Veil from Equestria forever. Fluttershy went after him, still hoping to reform the ferret, although Twilight kept telling her he was a lost cause. They ended up meeting Swartt, Veil's evil father, and having a strange time travel adventure. In the end, Veil had died, throwing himself in front of a bullet meant for Fluttershy. Apparently there was some good in the ferret after all.

After Veil died and Fluttershy and Twilight came back to Ponyville, Fluttershy had asked Digger if he would put up a headstone for Veil in the cemetery, even though his actual body had been left behind in the past. Digger agreed. He was always happy to please. But now there was a gaping hole in front of that headstone.

Twilight examined the hole more closely. "Hmmm, this is a strange hole. It doesn't look like it was dug with a shovel."

"No," Digger agreed. "Y'know what it really looks like? Like somepony, or somebeast, dug it up from the inside. Like they were buried alive and had to claw their way out."

Twilight shuddered. "Oh, don't say that. That's horrible. Besides, you know Veil was never buried in here."

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Fluttershy had just returned home after donating blood. The kindly yellow Pegasus was in her cottage, feeding her pets, when there came a knock at the door.

"This must be one of my friends," Fluttershy said to herself. She opened the door and it was… Veil!

The ferret was naked and covered in dirt, but otherwise he looked just as Fluttershy remembered. The Pegasus gave a cry of joy. "Veil! You're back! How did you get here?" She gave him a hug.

"I don't know," Veil said. "The last thing I remember is my father shooting me."

"He was a real nasty ferret," said Fluttershy. "You don't still want to be like him, do you?"

Veil shook his head emphatically. "No! Now that I've seen real evil, I realized that I can't follow my father's path. What happened to him, anyway?"

"He died."

Veil whistled softly to himself. "Stripedog finally killed him, eh?"

"Oh, Veil. Don't say stripedog. That's racist. No, Sunflash didn't kill Swartt. It was Martin the Warrior."

"Martin the Warrior?" Veil cried. "The mouse that founded Redwall Abbey? But he's been dead for seasons!"

"We went back in time, remember?" Fluttershy said.

"Oh, yeah." The ferret let out a sigh. "It's good to see you again, Fluttershy. You're the only friend I've ever had."

"You could have had a whole bunch of friends if you'd just been nice to everypony," said Fluttershy.

She led him inside.

"You don't have a bite to eat, do you?" Veil asked, sitting down at the kitchen table. "I feel like I haven't eaten in years." This was literally true.

Angel Bunny came into the kitchen and hissed at Veil. He remembered the ferret all too well.

"Angel! Be nice!" Fluttershy scolded. To Veil she said, "I was just about to start making dinner." She bent over the stove.

"I'm so glad you came back, Veily," she said. "This is like a dream come true!"

"But we have to be careful," Veil said. "I don't think any of your pony friends will be too happy to see me."

"They'll get used to you in time when they see how you've changed. Like they did with Discord."

Veil wrinkled his brow. "Who's Discord?"

"That's right, you've never met Discord, have you? He's a wonderful creature. He looks like a pentagram of all sorts of different animals, with the head of a pony. He can do magic. He used to use his magic for evil and terrify everypony, but I taught him how to use it for good. Now everypony in Ponyville is his friend, and they'll all be your friends too, just wait…" Suddenly Fluttershy noticed that the ferret was being oddly silent. She turned around.

A change had come over Veil. He had a scowl on his face, and when he stood up, he walked with a malicious swagger.

"What's the matter, Veil?"

"Dat's da second time in a day dat somebeast has called me Veil," said the ferret. Now he was suddenly talking like a stereotypical gangster from a bad 50s movie. "My name ain't Veil, ya dig? It's Swartt Sixclaw!"

"No, no, no," Fluttershy gasped. "You're not Swartt Sixclaw, you're my little Veil, you said you were going to change…"

The ferret seemed lost and confused. "How did I get here? Da last t'ing I remember is goin' through dat portal… Wait! I remember you. You're dat liddle horse-boid who stopped me from killin' da stripedog when I was alive da foist time!"

He grabbed Fluttershy and started to choke her. Fluttershy tried to scream for help, but she didn't have the breath.

Suddenly Rainbow Dash came crashing through the window and smashed into Swartt. She knocked him out cold.

"Fluttershy, are you all right?" Rainbow Dash demanded.

Fluttershy regained her breath. "I'm fine," she panted. But the ferret's fingers had left marks on her throat.

Rainbow Dash inspected the unconscious mustelid and then she saw who it was. "This is Swartt Sixclaw! How'd he get here? I thought he was dead!"

Fluttershy shook her head. "No, this isn't Swartt Sixclaw. This is Veil."

"I'm tellin' you, it's Swartt. I've seen him too many times to make a mistake."

Fluttershy looked at the ferret again. "Well, maybe it is Swartt, but when he came in, he was Veil. He must have turned into Swartt somehow."

"How can that be?" Rainbow Dash said.

Just then Twilight Sparkle came bursting in through the door. "Fluttershy! Rainbow Dash! Something strange is going on!"

"I think we already figured that out for ourselves," said Rainbow Dash.

Twilight saw Swartt lying on the floor. "We need to find the rest of our friends right now."


	3. Chapter 3

Twilight, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Applejack and Rarity were gathered around the big table in Twilight's castle. Twilight had filled the others in on what had happened.

"Where is Sixclaw now?" asked Rarity.

Rainbow Dash flexed her wings. "I got him tied up downstairs. He won't be goin' anywhere."

"This don't make no sense, nohow," said Applejack. "Not only was Veil dead, but ya left him behind in the past, so even if he did survive bein' shot he shouldn't be in this time period. Outta nowhere he jest turns up back at Fluttershy's house, an' then he turns into his father? How can a ferret turn into another ferret?"

"What if Swartt Sixclaw starts gathering another army and trying to take over the world again?" Pinkie worried.

Rainbow smashed her hoof on the table. "It's our job to keep that from happening!"

Twilight was pacing the floor. Suddenly she tripped over something. It was a book.

"You ought to be more careful where you leave your books, Twilight," Pinkie giggled.

Twilight picked the book up. "This isn't one of my books. I've never seen this before in my life. In fact, I could have sworn it wasn't there until five seconds ago." She read the title out loud: " _Outcast of Equestria_?"

"Isn't that what Princess Luna called Veil when she banished him?" Fluttershy asked.

Twilight opened the book and started to read. "Once upon a time there was an evil ferret named Swartt Sixclaw. He was called Swartt Sixclaw because he had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot…"

"This sounds awfully familiar," Rarity said.

As the story unfolded, it turned out that it was all about how Swartt had abandoned his son Veil in Ponyville, and how Veil had been banished and forced to choose between good and evil. By the time Twilight got to the end of the story, where Veil died, Fluttershy was in tears. Painful memories were re-emerging in her mind.

"What the hay?" Rainbow Dash said. "Somepony wrote a story about Veil and us? How did they know what happened?"

"Is there a name on the cover, Twilight?" Rarity asked, peering over Twilight's shoulder.

"Hold your horses, girls," said Twilight. "The story's not over yet. There's still one more chapter."

And what a doozy of a chapter it was. For the first time, the girls learned the true ending of Veil's story, the last part that they had not been around to see for themselves. It turned out that Veil had not really died from his gunshot wound after all! Instead, he woke up back in the past, finding himself in a strange house, being nursed by a fox. And the fox was called Nightshade!

"Nightshade- that's the fox who always went around with Swartt Sixclaw, giving him evil advice!" Rainbow cried. "Veil's headed for trouble, I can just feel it!"

There were only a few paragraphs left. As Twilight continued reading, it unfolded that Veil had been so traumatized by his near death experience that he couldn't remember his own name. So Nightshade had given him a new one… Swartt Sixclaw! Just in case you didn't realize what this meant, the last sentence of the book made it clear for you: "And that is the story of how Veil, the Outcast of Equestria, became his own father."

The room exploded.

"Veil's his own father?" Fluttershy cried.

"So when Swartt was tearin' up Mossflower fer all those seasons, it was really Veil the whole time?" Applejack shouted.

"I always thought they looked similar!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

"Wait a minute," Rarity said. "If Veil is his own father, that means that other ferret Bluefen was his wife _and_ his mother! He married his own… Ew!"

Everypony made a face.

"So that explains why he keeps changing back and forth," Twilight said. "Veil and Swartt are two personalities sharing the same body."

"Like Doctor Heckle and Mr. Jekyll!" Pinkie Pie put in.

"Oh, poor Veil," Fluttershy said. "I can't imagine what it must be like for him. To have that horrible guy for a father and then find out that he _is_ his horrible father!"

"Well, he probably doesn't know that he's his own father," said Twilight. "You said when he switched back and forth, he didn't have any memory of when he was the other person. There's a name for that condition. It's called schizophrenia."

"Veil has a condition?" Fluttershy's voice got really high.

"But we still don't know how he came back to life after he _died_ ," said Twilight.

"Whaddya say we go down and ask him a few questions?" Rainbow Dash pounded her hooves together.

They went downstairs, but there was no trace of either Swartt or Veil!

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"Heh, heh, heh. Most a dese ponies are so stupid," said Swartt Sixclaw. Rainbow Dash had tied him to a rope, but in her haste she neglected to fasten the other end of the rope to anything. As soon as Swartt had regained consciousness, he had bolted. Now he was running through the Everfree Forest. The creature Discord had told him to meet would be on the other side of the forest.

Suddenly he turned back into Veil. Veil was confused. He had no idea how he'd gotten here. He didn't even know where he was. He tried to find his way back to Ponyville, but everything looked the same to him, no matter which direction he turned. Trees everywhere. Soon, he was completely lost.

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"I think this problem is too big for us to solve alone," said Twilight. "Spike, fire off a letter to Princess Celestia and tell her to get over here as quick as she can."


	4. Chapter 4

Celestia and Luna arrived at Twilight's castle the next day.

"I'm so glad you came, Princess," said Twilight. "I'm good at solving friendship problems, but this isn't really a friendship problem."

"No, this is a 'I am my own father' problem," said Pinkie. "Or is it a 'two ferrets stuck in one body' problem?"

"Poor Veil, lost and alone out there in the Everfree Forest," said Fluttershy. "What if he gets eaten by a hydra, or a dragon, or a timber wolf? We need to find him!"

Luna snorted. "Poor Veil? What about everypony else? If you ask me, the best thing to do when we find that vermin is kill him! I already warned him once not to come back here."

"No, don't kill him!" Fluttershy cried. Then she realized who she was speaking to. "I'm sorry, Princess, but Veil's changed now. He said he doesn't want to be bad anymore. It's only Swartt that's bad."

"I don't know," said Rainbow Dash. "That's what Veil always said when he got caught doin' something wrong."

Luna stomped her hoof. "When rocks have crumbled to dust, vermin will still remain vermin!"

"Enough of this talk, sister!" Celestia cried. "We will not kill Veil. Veil and Swartt must be looked upon as two separate entities. Two personalities sharing the same body. One good (ish), one evil. It's a classic Jekyll and Hyde situation."

"You mean a Heckle and Jekyll situation," said Pinkie.

"Luna, you used to be evil when you were Nightmare Moon, but you changed and became good again," Fluttershy reminded her.

"Yes, but I only became evil in the first place because I was corrupted by Discord," said Luna. "Ferrets are born killers."

"I have a theory," said Celestia. "Swartt Sixclaw emerged after Veil lost his memory and Nightshade found him. That wicked fox molded the ferret in her own evil image. All Veil's criminal urges found an outlet in Swartt Sixclaw. I think that all the badness in Veil has gone into his Swartt Sixclaw persona. Veil's real self remains underneath, and the two sides are fighting for control. He's been separated into his good and evil halves."

"Yeah, but he never turned back into himself when he was the Warlord," said Rainbow Dash. "Why is he suddenly doing it now?"

"And how did he come back to life?" added Twilight. "No magic can raise the dead!"

Celestia frowned. "I don't know the answers to those questions, but I do have an idea of how we can deal with the Sixclaws. Obviously Swartt must be destroyed, but maybe we can do that without harming Veil. We must make a serum, a potion that separates the personification of inner darkness from one's body."

"What does that mean?" Fluttershy asked.

"It means we have to mix up a potion and inject it into Veil. Then, his good and evil sides will finally separate, and Veil and Swartt will become two separate ferrets."

"Do you really know how to do that? Are you sure it won't hurt Veil?"

"Don't worry, Fluttershy. I know exactly how to create the serum, and it will not hurt Veil," Celestia reassured her. "Twilight can help me make it."

Twilight saluted the princess. "Yes, ma'am! I can do that. Scientific stuff is no problem for me."

"The rest of you must find Veil," Celestia said. "There's no time to lose!"

Luna, Fluttershy, Rainbow, Pinkie, Applejack and Rarity left Twilight's house immediately and set out to search for Veil.

All week, the ponies combed Equestria, but they couldn't find Veil and Swartt anywhere. In truth, the ferret did not know where he was himself, either half of him. Neither of them had any memory of what his other side had done, so whenever they switched back and forth, the one regaining control would always find himself in an unfamiliar location. They would wander around and get even more lost.

Finally, one day, Swartt discovered the edge of the Everfree Forest. He stumbled out of the dark woods and found himself on a farm. He had never seen this place before. "At least if it's a farm dere'll be somethin' ta eat," he thought. "An' maybe da creatures livin' dere know da way to dat place I'm s'posed ta go."

He went up to the farmhouse and banged on the door. A gray pony opened it. She was Pinkie Pie's sister, Maud Pie! "Hello," Maud said dully.

"Do ya know da way ta Redwall Abbey?" Swartt demanded.

"No. Never heard of it."

"Isn't dis Mossflower Country?"

"No, this is Equestria."

Swartt shook his head. "Ain't dat da luck! Don't dat just figure? I've been stumblin' around in dat jungle for days an' I ended up right back where I started. Well, as long as I'm here, gimme some grub!"

"Grub?"

"Are ya deaf? Don't ya know what grub is? Food, I want food!"

"Um, all we have are rocks."

Swartt got a greedy look in his eye. "Rocks, huh? I know guys dat'd croak deir best friends for a rock." He thought she was talking about diamonds.

"Not this kind of rocks," said Maud. "These rocks are for eating."

"I ain't never hoid o' rocks you could eat," said Swartt, "but I'm hungry enough dat I'll try anyt'ing!"

Maud led him to the kitchen and served him some rocks. The rest of her family was out buying farming tools. The ones they had kept breaking because they kept using them on rocks.

Swartt put a rock into his mouth and started to chew it, but it was too hard. He broke a tooth. "What is dis? Are ya tryin' ta poison me?"

"This is what my family eats all the time, sir," Maud said nervously.

"Gimme somethin' else!"

"I don't have anything else."

"What? What kinda farm is dis?"

"A rock farm, sir."

Swartt cursed and leaped up from his chair. "If I had my switchblade wit' me, I'd carve my initials into ya throat!"

He continued to demand some other food, but Maud didn't have any to give him. So he began to choke her and beat her up, just as he had done to Fluttershy.

Suddenly he stopped. Maud dropped to the ground.

Swartt had turned back into Veil. Veil looked around confusedly. "Where am I?" He saw Maud lying injured on the ground. "Are you all right? What happened to you?"

"You know what happened. You're the one who did this to me. Get away from me." She still spoke in the same flat monotone even as she scrambled away from the ferret, holding out her hooves to protect herself.

"I never did anything to you!" Veil protested. "Life's hard and cruel for a poor ferret that's all alone in the world."

"Get out of my house, vermin."

Just then the door opened and Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, and Princess Luna came in. Pinkie Pie let out a cry when she saw her sister's state. Maud had a black eye and bruises on her face. She had choke marks just like the ones on Fluttershy's neck.

"Maud! What happened?" Pinkie said.

Maud pointed at Veil. "He broke in, demanded food. When I said I didn't have anything but rocks, he started choking me."

"I don't remember any of that!" Veil cried. Then he saw Fluttershy. "Fluttershy, where did you get those marks on your neck? Has somebeast been choking you? If I catch the dirty vermin who dared to hurt you, I'll give him a good beating!"

"Ya best give yerself a blame good thrashin', then," snapped Applejack. "Cause yore the one who did this. Look at the marks on Fluttershy's neck! Look at the marks on Maud's neck! They match yore fingerprints awfully well, don't they?"

Veil looked. It was true. "But I don't remember anything!" He started to cry.

Fluttershy put her arm around him.

"I wouldn't get too close to him," said Luna. "He could turn back into Swartt at any moment."

"What? What do you mean?" Veil asked.

Fluttershy wasn't sure what to say. Of course Veil was entitled to learn the truth about himself, but how was she supposed to tell him?

Rainbow Dash, in her typical blunt fashion, delivered the news. "Veil," she said, "you are your father!"

"Huh? How can I be my own father?"

"Do you remember when you went back in time and got shot?" Rarity asked. "You lost your memory and got stuck in the past. You took the new name Swartt Sixclaw and became an evil warlord."

"Like my father?"

"No," Luna said. "Not like your father. You literally were your father. The ferret we thought was Swartt Sixclaw was really your own future self. Then you married another ferret named Bluefen and had a son, who travelled back in time to become you, creating a time loop."

"Now you're caught between your good and evil sides," said Rainbow. "You know how you have long periods of time where you can't remember what you've been doin'? That's because you become your father, Swartt Sixclaw, during that time. You don't remember what he does, and when he's in control, he doesn't remember what you do."

Veil's mouth hung open. He was struck dumb.

"I'm sorry, Veil, but it's true," said Fluttershy, hugging him.

"So I really did hurt you," said Veil. "And that other pony over there. No matter how hard I try to be good, I just end up doing more evil. I should just kill myself right now."

Fluttershy gasped. "Veil, don't talk like that!"

"There ain't no call to go offin' yoreself, just cause you've done a few bad things," said Applejack.

"But how else can I put an end to my evil father? I mean me. I mean my father. I mean me."

"We have a plan for that," said Luna. "We can take you back to Ponyville, where my sister Celestia and Twilight Sparkle have been working on a magic potion. If we inject it into you, your good and evil halves will separate, and then we can deal with the evil half. Does that sound good?"

But before she'd even finished speaking, Veil had turned into Swartt, and Swartt caught enough of Luna's words to grasp the situation.

"No, dat don't sound good!" he snapped. "I've got a job ta do, an' I'm gonna do it! An' no unicorn, Pegasus, or dirt pony is gonna stop me."

Pinkie giggled. "Silly! We're called earth ponies!"

Luna tried to do a spell, but Swartt pushed past her and bolted out the door. He ran back into the forest.

Everypony rushed outside, but the ferret was already out of sight.

"Aw, horsefeathers! He's gone again," Applejack groaned.

"He said he had a job to do," Fluttershy said. "What do you think he was talking about?"

"I don't know," said Maud, "but he was asking me the way to some place called Redwall Abbey."

"Redwall Abbey? Why does he want to go there?" said Rainbow Dash. She had never been to Redwall herself, but she had met some creatures from there when they came to help her and her good friend Sunflash the Mace defend the mountain of Salamandastron.

"Whatever the reason, it can't be good," said Luna.


	5. Chapter 5

Another week passed. Swartt Sixclaw had finally managed to reach the other side of the Everfree Forest, and now he was on Mossflower's Eastern Coast, where once, long ago, the tyrant Nightmare Moon had ruled. The beast that he was meant to meet was living there.

He saw an old ruined castle. This had once been known as Fort Marshank. It had been built by an evil stoat named Badrang. But Nightmare Moon had killed Badrang, taken over Marshank, and renamed it Nightmare Fortress.

Swartt boldly went up to the gate and knocked on it. Somebeast inside opened the door. Swartt saw an unusual looking stoat standing before him. The stoat was fat and had a braided beard. He wore a pirate hat on his head, but he was also wearing a long black cape and he had two fangs sticking out of his mouth like a vampire.

"Argh ye matey!" he said. "Come in, and leave something of the 'appiness you bring!"

"Captain Tramun Clogg," Swartt acknowledged. "Did Discord tell ya I was comin'?"

"Aye," said Clogg.

Swartt headed inside. Clogg closed the gate behind him.

While Clogg was filling Swartt in on the plans, the six ponies who had been following Swartt arrived outside the gates of Nightmare Fortress.

"Look!" exclaimed Applejack. "There's ferret tracks leadin' right into that buildin'."

"But this is Luna's old castle from when she was Nightmare Moon," said Fluttershy. "Why would Swartt want to come here?"

"I don't know," said Luna. "Let's get under cover and see what happens next."

They hid behind a big boulder on the beach, where they still had a clear view of the fortress gates. Soon two beasts came out.

Rainbow Dash squinted. "That's Sixclaw, all right, but I don't recognize the other one," she whispered. "Not even sure what kind of animal it is. Maybe a weasel?"

Luna's eyes narrowed. "No. That's not a weasel. It's a stoat. And his name's Captain Tramun Clogg."

"You know him?" Rarity whispered.

"Yes, he gave me a lot of trouble in the past. He's one of those pirates. But I thought I killed him years ago!"

They had to cut short their conversation as just then the two vermin came right up to the rock the ponies were hiding behind. Clogg was carrying a bunch of bottles of red liquid in his paws.

"Why do ya gotta take all dat stuff with ya?" Swartt asked.

Clogg winked at him. "Cause I'm a vampire! I've gotta have blood to drink on the voyage so's I don't perish from 'unger! When we're sailin' on the sea, I won't 'ave time to stop and bite other creatures, so I need to carry some blood with me. Unless you'd rather I drank your blood, matey?"

"No need for dat," Swartt said hastily. "I was just wonderin'."

"All right. So my ship's docked just over that 'ill."

Clogg led Swartt to his new ship, the _Seascarab II,_ which Discord had provided for him. It wasn't as big as the original _Seascarab_ , but it was adequate for their purposes.

"Traveling by sea, we should reach Redwall Abbey in a matter o' days," said Clogg as they walked up the gangplank. "'Ere, matey, I've got a few things for ye." He found a chest and rummaged in it. "First things first, somethin' for you to wear." He took out a black leather jacket, just like the one Swartt always used to wear.

"Groovy!" said Swartt. "I ain't had nothin' to wear for two weeks!"

"And some weapons, cause you'll need those real bad. Ha harr!" Clogg handed him a flick knife and a gun.

"A switchblade an' a heater," Swartt said, looking at the objects greedily. "I bet dose squares at da Abbey ain't even seen a heater before!"

Clogg pulled up the anchor, and the ship started moving. The ponies watched it sail away.

"Clogg is a vampire?" Fluttershy cried. "Oh no! What'll happen when Veil comes back? He'll be defenseless!"

"There's no time to lose," Luna agreed. "We need to follow that ship!"

"But how can we? It's travelling on the water!" Rarity said.

"Only way to keep up with it is by flyin'," Rainbow Dash said.

"That's right," Luna agreed. "Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and I will pursue the ship. The rest of you must go back to Celestia and Twilight and tell them to meet us."

"But how will we know where to meet you?" Pinkie Pie asked.

Luna was in a hurry. "Just meet us at Redwall Abbey. We know that's where they're going," she called as she took flight. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy followed her.

Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity were left alone. "Do either of you know how to get to Redwall Abbey?" Rarity asked.

"Nope!" the other two said together.

"Neither do I."

"Oh no! What are we gonna do!" Pinkie Pie was bouncing up and down.

"Ya reckon Celestia knows the way to Redwall?" Applejack asked. "Ah know she's been in Mossflower before."

"We'll have to hope she does," said Rarity. "And we'll have to hope she and Twilight are finished with that serum by now."

The three of them turned and ran back toward the Everfree Forest.


	6. Chapter 6

The vampire stoat and the zombie ferret hadn't been sailing for very long when Swartt turned back into Veil again. Veil didn't know how he'd gotten onto this boat, or who Clogg was, but he guessed that this must be some skullduggery his Swartt Sixclaw side was up to. He decided to pretend to be Swartt so he could figure out what was going on.

"So, buddy," he said, imitating Swartt's accent as best he could. "How long till we get where we're goin'?"

Clogg chuckled. "Ha harr harr! Why, matey, I just told yer that. I said we'd 'ave about three days o' sailing on the sea, then we'll come to a stream that leads westward, back into Mossflower. From there it's just a short walk northwest to Redwall Abbey, about 26 miles." He took a swig of blood mixed with beer from a bottle.

"What is dat?" Veil asked, trying to hide his disgust.

Clogg stared at him. "'Ere, mate, are you squishy in the brainbox? I told yer before, I drink blood. I'm a vampire!"

A vampire? That didn't sound good. Veil would have to be careful not to ask too many questions, or Clogg might suspect something. But he couldn't stop himself from asking one more when he read the label on the bottle. It said: _Fluttershy._

"Why does your bottle have da name Fluttershy written on it!?"

"Ha harr, cause she's the lovely pony who donated the blood in this bottle. I don't always bite other creatures myself, y'know. I 'ave an associate in Ponyville who set up a fake blood bank for me. Ponies donate their blood, thinkin' it's going to a hospital, when it actually all gets shipped straight to me! Not that I don't enjoy huntin' for meself on occasion, ha harr!" He saw the horrified expression on Veil's face. "Don't worry, matey, I wouldn't bite you. I never drink the blood of other vermin; it tastes terrible!"

"So do da ponies who donate deir blood… become vampires too?" Veil could barely keep the tremor out of his voice.

"Argh ye matey, no, they only become vampires if I bite 'em myself." Clogg took another swig. "I gotta say, though, I wouldn't mind meeting this Fluttershy in person. Her blood's the sweetest I've ever tasted."

Soon, Clogg was drunk on the beer he'd mixed with the blood. He started singing "The Slaughter of the Crew of the Rusty Chain" off-key and then he keeled over. He lay on the deck, unmoving. Fortunately, the _Seascarab II_ was built so that it could drift on a steady course without a great deal of attention.

Gingerly, Veil put out a paw and touched the stoat, but he didn't respond. Just then, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Luna landed on the deck.

"Fluttershy! You don't know how glad I am to see you!"

"Veil! Did the nasty vampire hurt you?"

"No, he said he never drinks the blood of other vermin," Veil said. "But he wants to drink _your_ blood, Fluttershy. He got a bottle of your blood from a fake blood bank you donated to."

Fluttershy was at a loss for words.

"So you'd better get out of here before he wakes up."

"We came to get _you_ out of here, Veil," said Luna. "We're going to take you back to Ponyville and put the serum in you so you and Swartt will be separated."

"I don't know," said Veil. "This Captain Clogg wants to go to Redwall Abbey. Whatever he wants to do there, it can't be good. I'm the only one who stands a chance of figuring out what he's up to. If he thinks I'm Swartt, he'll tell me his plans."

"But that's really dangerous," said Fluttershy. "Are you sure you're up for it?"

Veil nodded. "I have to do this. I need to make up for the evil I've done in the past."

Fluttershy gave him a hug. "It does my heart good to hear you say that. But be careful, Veil."

"Careful's my middle name. Veil 'Careful' Sixclaw."

"Do you have any idea how far away from Redwall you are?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Clogg said we'd sail south for three days until we came to a stream that led into Mossflower. After we get down the stream it's only a few miles to Redwall."

"Then maybe I have a plan to stop Clogg from getting to the Abbey." Rainbow Dash rubbed her hooves together.

"What is it?" Veil inquired.

Rainbow became reticent, unwilling to reveal the scheme to Veil. "It's just something I saw Sunflash the Mace do once."

"But what?"

"We'd best be leaving now. Come along, Fluttershy," Luna said.

"I guess you'd better get out of here before I turn into Swartt again," Veil agreed. "It could happen at any time."

The three ponies flew off, falling behind the boat far enough that they could still see it, but the creatures inside couldn't see them. Fluttershy kept glancing back nervously at Veil.

"Poor Veil," she said. "He's so brave. I hope nothing happens to him."

Rainbow Dash and Luna excanged a look. Fluttershy couldn't figure out what it meant. "What's the matter?"

"I'm not sure we should trust him," Rainbow whispered.

"How can you say that? He's our friend."

"Veil wasn't exactly a goodbeast even before he became Swartt Sixclaw," said Luna. "He poisoned Celestia, remember? How do we know he really wants to stop Clogg? Maybe he wants to help him."

"But Celestia said she thought all the evil in Veil had gone into the Swartt side of his personality," Fluttershy argued. "I completely trust Veil. One hundred percent. Right now, Veil isn't safe. And we need to help him. If you're not up for the task, that's fine. But I'm going to protect Veil. I thought you two were going to help me. Are you?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Rainbow Dash cried. "Who said anything about not being up for the task?"

"Of course we're going to help you, Fluttershy," said Luna. "We're your friends. We're with you, no matter what."


	7. Chapter 7

Clogg and Veil sailed south for three days, just as the stoat had said they would. Fluttershy and her friends followed behind the boat. The _Seascarab II_ stayed near the coast, never out of sight of land, so there were opportunities for the ponies to take brief rests every now and then.

Whenever Veil was in control of himself, he tried to find out why Clogg and Swartt wanted to go to Redwall. All he managed to gather was that they weren't just after plunder and conquest. Clogg hinted that they wanted to kill one specific beast, but didn't say who it was, at least not to Veil. Veil wanted to ask, but he figured it would make Clogg suspicious if he revealed that he didn't know the purpose of their mission. Veil also got the impression from all of Clogg's talk that both Clogg and Swartt were working for some other creature. It was Discord, of course, but he didn't know that.

Neither Swartt nor Veil liked Clogg. Swartt was disgusted by the stoat's sloppiness, but Discord had told him to cooperate with Clogg. Swartt just wanted to get the job over with so Discord would give him the locket that contained his soul, and then he'd be unstoppable. Veil was inwardly terrified of the vampire, and angered by his threats against Fluttershy, but he knew he had to go along with Clogg until he could figure out what the stoat was up to.

At last, on the morning of the fourth day, they came to the stream. "Argh ye matey, it won't be long now," said Clogg. "We'll just sail up this stream a ways, an' then walk the rest of the way to Redwall. We should get there by tonight."

"An' den we can croak da guy we wanna croak," said Veil, imitating Swartt. He hoped Clogg would respond by dropping the name of their intended victim, but Clogg didn't. He just laughed his stupid laugh again.

The ponies had flown inland, farther up the stream. The area they were in had a lot of big rocks. They were getting ready to put Rainbow Dash's plan into action.

"We're going to push some of these boulders into the water, blocking the path of the ship," Rainbow Dash said. "Sunflash did that once, to stop some searats."

"An excellent idea!" Luna declared. "They won't be able to go forward or backward. They'll be stuck."

"To tell ya the truth, I don't know how much damage they could do at Redwall anyway," said Rainbow Dash. "There's only two of them, not an army."

"Unless they have a horde waiting for them in Mossflower somewhere."

Fluttershy stomped her hoof. "It kinda makes me mad that Clogg has been drinking my blood! When I donated it, I thought it was going to sick ponies!"

"Yes, that was despicable," Luna agreed. "To set up a blood bank in Ponyville, he must have had a pony helping him."

"I bet it was Flim and Flam!" Rainbow cried.

"When that vampire comes up here, I've got a score to settle with him," Luna said.

They worked together to roll two big boulders into the stream. Then they waited.

In a few hours, they heard loud discordant singing.

"Whoa, the Cap'n of the Rusty Chain

Ain't feelin' much surprise,

E's deader'n a duck on the ocean floor

While the fish nibble out 'is eyes…"

At the ship's wheel, Clogg nudged Veil. "Come on, ye matey, why aren't you singin' along?"

All of a sudden there was a terrific bump and Clogg went flying over the wheel to land face first on the deck. "Wot happened?"

"I think we may have run into somethin'," Veil said.

Clogg hopped out of the boat and onto the land to inspect the damage. "She's trapped 'ead on between two great rocks! An' there's a hole in 'er side! 'Ow did this 'appen? Did yew do this?" He glared suspiciously at the ferret.

"How could I have done anythin'? I've been right here with you da whole time."

Rainbow Dash swooped down from a tree where she'd been hiding. "Your ship will never sail again, Clogg!"

When Clogg saw her, his eyes lit up. Rainbow Dash could tell he was thinking he'd rather have her fresh blood than blood out of a bottle. With super vampire speed, he pounced on her and pinned her to the ground.

He was just about to bite her neck when a voice boomed, "Unhand that Pegasus immediately, seascum!"

Clogg straightened up, still keeping a firm hold on Rainbow Dash. His eyes narrowed to slits. "Nightmare Moon. So, you've scuttled another of me ships? Well, no matter. This is the day you die!"

The alicorn scraped the ground with her hoof, raising a small cloud of dust. "My name is not Nightmare Moon, but Princess Luna, and you will address me as such!"

"Princess? So you've demoted yerself from Empress? Well, I'd think twice before using that horn of yours. Because if you try anything, I'll sink me fangs into this little beauty here before you can bat an eye!" He shifted, situating Rainbow Dash between himself and Luna.

Rainbow Dash struggled to break free of the vampire pirate stoat's grip, but stoats are pretty strong, and vampire stoats doubly so. Clogg and Luna were at an impasse. Luna wasn't at all sure she could blast Clogg without hitting Rainbow Dash too, and if Clogg knew if he killed Rainbow Dash, Luna would immediately kill him.

Fluttershy was watching from the trees. She wanted to rush up and grab Rainbow Dash, but if she made a move, Clogg would bite Rainbow.

Veil sat in the sinking ship. He wished he could help, but he didn't know what to do. And then he had an idea. While Clogg was distracted, he could run ahead to Redwall Abbey and warn the creatures there.

He scrambled out of the wrecked boat, jumping onto the Mossflower side of the bank. Clogg had said Redwall was 26 miles due northwest of this spot. He started running as fast as his legs would carry him.

Fluttershy saw him take off. "V- I mean, Swartt! Where are you going?" Veil didn't stop to answer her, and soon he was gone.

Fluttershy glanced back and forth, panicked. In one direction, Rainbow Dash was being held by a vampire, and in the other, Veil was tearing away into the woods. Which way should she go? Which friend should she help?


	8. Chapter 8

"Go after the ferret," Luna told Fluttershy, while still keeping her eyes on Clogg. "We can't lose track of him again."

"But are you sure you'll be okay without me?" Fluttershy asked.

"Yes! Go!"

Fluttershy flew off in the direction that Veil had run.

Luna turned her attention back to Clogg. "Let Rainbow Dash go. You have no quarrel with her."

Clogg ran his claws gently along Rainbow Dash's throat. "Maybe I will. Maybe I won't. Maybe I'll… AAARRGH!"

Without warning he dropped Rainbow Dash and rushed at Luna, drawing a cutlass from his belt. His steel clashed against Luna's horn.

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Joshy Stag Hare was Discord's son. Like Discord, he had magical powers, but he never would have dreamed of using them for evil. He could do amazing things. For instance, he could make food appear just by saying the name of the desired food.

Joshy had been born a slave. In fact, he had labored in Marshank alongside Martin the Warrior. After Princess Celestia and her pony army had helped Martin escape and free the rest of the slaves, Joshy came to live in the town of Noonvale. He spent many happy seasons there, but when he heard one day that Swartt Sixclaw was attacking the mountain of Salamandastron, he decided to go over there and enlist in the Long Patrol. He ended up meeting Veil, and got swept up in a time travel spell, along with Veil, Twilight, and Fluttershy. So Joshy was there to witness the death of Swartt Sixclaw. Afterwards, he decided not to join the army after all, and he went to live at Redwall Abbey. Some of the Abbey mice had come to Salamandastron to help the Badger Lord, Sunflash the Mace, fight the invaders. They brought Joshy Stag Hare back home with them. Because the mouse who had been in charge of the kitchens, Friar Bunfold, had died in the battle for Salamandastron, Joshy eventually became his replacement. He was a good choice for the job because he could conjure food by magic.

Right now Joshy was sleeping in a wheelbarrow in the Abbey orchard. His bulging stomach rose and fell with each snore, the leaves of an overhanging pear tree trembling with every exhalation of his breath.

A pretty little mousemaid named Bryony complained to her friend, a mole named Togget, "Ole Joshy's still snoring, I can't wake him."

Togget waved a paw in the air as if creating a spell, except of course he wasn't creating a spell because he wasn't a wizard like Joshy. "You'm leave that beast to Oi, moi dear."

Bryony covered her mouth to stifle a giggle as Togget shook Joshy by his sleeve urgently. Instead of wearing a simple brown habit like the other Brothers of Redwall, Joshy always wore a blue and white striped robe. "Coom on, ole zurr, wakey oop, ee toald Oi to wake ee if'n ee gurt cake was a-burnin' in ee h'oven!"

Joshy fell out of the barrow with a start. "Cake burnin', where, what cake? I wasn't sleepin', wot!"

Cheerful Redwallers called out to Joshy as he bustled through Great Hall on his way to the kitchens, with Bryony and Togget following.

"Good afternoon, Friar. What's for dinner tonight?"

Joshy gave a mock scowl at a young squirrel. "Boiled frog an' toasted clouds for you, Brugg, m'laddo!"

Brugg made a face, playing along with the hare. "Yuck! Sooner have lightnin' soup an' ditchwater!"

Togget managed to pull Brugg's tail as he passed. "Loightnen zoop 'n' ditchwater, Oi'll see wot Oi c'n do for ee, maister, bo urr!"

Bryony giggled helplessly at the face Brugg made, and gasped, "Don't be sad, Brugg, I'll see if I can bake a little thunder cake to dip in your lightnin' soup, hahahaha!"

The Abbey kitchens were all a bustle, clouds of steam wreathing the woodlanders as they dashed to and fro. A huge hedgehog wife called Myrtle waved a ladle at a large cake that lay on a stone cooling slab, saying, "D'you want to slice it now, Friar? It baked well."

Joshy glared over his shoulder at Togget. "Burnt cake, eh?"

Togget nodded ruefully. "Dearie me, but Oi do tell whackin' fibbers, tho' et did wake ee oop, hurr hurr, that et did!"

"Food's no jokin' matter, laddie buck. Always remember that, wot!" Joshy sniffed the air. "Whaaaw! What's that smell? Have you been eatin' wild garlic again?"

"Turrible, baint et. Oi can't aboid the smell of woild garleck, moiself. Oi dearly loiks the taste, though."

Two tiny otters scooted past with a laden trolley, both yelling in deep olderbeast voices, "Gangway, watch y'backs there, mates!"

Joshy arrested their progress, catching both by their aprons as he halted the trolley with a quick footpaw. "Whoa there, steady up, Dibbuns. What's all this?"

The otter twins, Blatt and Scrimmo, waggled their tails respectfully at the Redwall Friar.

"Butt'n mushrooms, matey, sir!" said one otter.

"Aye, an' watershrimps too, sir, matey!" said the other otter.

Joshy sorted through the snowy white mushrooms and inspected the netful of almost transparent shrimp. "Good work, chaps. Did you gather these?"

"Sir, this very mornin' out in the woods, matey."

"Our mum 'elped us too, she said to bring 'em straight t'you."

Joshy gave the otters a candied chestnut apiece. "Champion stuff, wot! Don't forget an' thank your mum for me. They'll make great pasties for the feast this evenin'. Want to stay an' watch me cut 'n' fill this big cake?"

Blatt and Scrimmo nodded furiously. Myrtle lifted both and stood them on the cooling slab for a good view of the proceedings.

With swift sureness Joshy sliced through the sides of the pale fawn cake, and then sliced again. The little otters watched wide eyed as the hare worked, separating the cake into three flat circles, moist and gently steaming.

Blatt and Scrimmo spread cherry conserve on the bottom layer of the cake. Then Togget and Bryony spread meadowcream on the middle tier. Joshy and an otter named Heartwood carefully placed the three circles together in their former positions and coated the cake generously with the remainder of the meadowcream.

The six cake makers began decorating, working around the sides and top with a random pattern of hazelnut and almond flakes, sliced early strawberries, and tiny young rose leaves crystallized in honey.

Joshy Stag Hare surveyed his masterpiece proudly. "It's the very picture of a spring afternoon, wot. Shame it has to be eaten, really." He looked around the kitchen. "Let's see, we've got hotroot soup for the otters, turnip 'n' tater 'n' beetroot pie for the moles, hazelnut scones. An' now, the piece of resistance." He raised his paws and shouted "Fried chicken!" and a whole bunch of fried chicken appeared. "Feast's ready, wot!"

Today was a special day. Joshy's one year anniversary as Friar. It had been four season to the day since he came to Redwall, so they were having a feast to celebrate.

It was a jolly meal, and the food was excellent. Lanterns twinkled around Great Hall. Moles jostled shoulders with mice; hedgehogs sat next to otters and squirrels. Servers went around with large jugs of dandelion fizz, specially brewed by Morton, the hedgehog cellar keeper, and his friend the Foremole, leader of the moles.

Joshy was sitting next to Meriam, the Mother Abbess. Meriam was tall for a mouse, slender and of middle seasons, though her great wisdom and serenity would have done credit to one twice her age. The Abbess viewed Joshy's great cake, sitting in the middle of the table, and said, "A truly beautiful cake, Friar Joshy."

Joshy's face glowed with pleasure. "Thankee, marm, I had lots o' good help t'make it, wot wot."

"I would not doubt the truth of that, Friar. It might have spoiled in the oven whilst you were napping in the orchard, had it not been for the vigilance of Togget and our little flower, Bryony."

The surprise on Joshy's face was forestalled as Barlom, the mouse who was the Abbey Recorder and Gatekeeper, came into the hall. He had a look of consternation. "Mother Abbess, marm, there's a ferret at the gate, demanding to be let in!"

Abbess Meriam remained calm. "Very well. I will go and look at him." She got up from her chair and went out to the gatehouse. Joshy followed her, and so did Skipper, the leader of the otters.

Veil was pounding on the Abbey gate. He was out of breath, having run the whole way to Redwall. "Let me in! You've got to let me in! I've got urgent news!"

Meriam and Skipper peered through the gatehouse windows at the ferret. "He looks like a low down cheap little punk," said Skipper. "Look at that jacket he's wearing. It's a leather jacket, and we all know leather comes from animal skin."

"Let me take a shifty at him," said Joshy. Skipper moved aside so Joshy could look out. "Why, I know that ferret!" the hare cried. "That's Veil, wot!"

"Is he good or bad?" the Abbess asked.

Joshy considered. "Hmm, hard t'say, wot. He says he has urgent news. Might as well let him make his statement before he pegs out. I shouldn't think one lone villain could bother us too much, wot wot!"

So they opened the gate and let Veil in. The ferret could only gasp out one word, "Vampire," before he collapsed from exhaustion.


	9. Chapter 9

Veil woke up in the Infirmary a few hours later. He opened his eyes to see a mousemaid standing over his bed. He thought she was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen.

Bryony pushed Veil gently back on to the pillows and held a bowl of water to his cracked, dry lips. "Please drink this and lie still."

Joshy Stag Hare strode into the room. "Ah, I see Veil's finally up an' about, wot wot!"

"I can't find anything physically wrong with him," said Sister Withe, the Infirmary Keeper. "It looks like he just collapsed from exhaustion. He must have run a long way."

"Twenty-six miles," Veil said.

Bryony placed a paw on his forehead. "Hush now, don't try to talk. Just relax."

"I can't afford to relax!" Veil burst out. "Where is your Abbess? I've got to tell her something!"

Meriam stepped forward. "I'm the Abbess."

"There's a VAMPIRE coming to attack your Abbey!" Veil cried.

Instead of being frightened, Joshy, Bryony, and the Abbess burst into laughter.

Sister Withe sniffed. She was one of those strict kind of Sisters. "I'm not laughing. How can you talk such rubbish? Vampires don't really exist. Only in storybooks."

"It's true!" Veil insisted. "His name is Tramun Clogg and he's a vampire pirate stoat! He wants to kill somebeast living here!"

"Hmm, I did know of a beast by that name one time," said Joshy. "But he must be long dead."

"He's not dead. He's a vampire!"

"I knew we shouldn't have let a vermin in," said Sister Withe. "He probably just wants to steal something."

"I don't know. He seems pretty earnest," said Bryony. "He ran all this way just to warn us."

Veil jumped out of the bed. "Yes! I'm telling the truth. You've got to believe me!" He started to leave the room.

Joshy blocked his way. "Hold up, old chap. Where d'you think you're goin'?"

"I have to leave. It's not safe for me to be here."

The hare was baffled. "You just got in, an' you already want to get out?"

"We would not turn you away, unless you were an enemy that meant us harm," said Abbess Meriam. "You have been through an ordeal, and now you must rest."

"I can't afford to rest!" Veil was jumping around from one foot to the other. "Something bad will happen if I stay. I can't tell you what, but just trust me." He was worried about turning back into Swartt.

"I'll tell Skipper and his otters to post a guard on the walltop," said the Abbess. "Of course there's no such thing as a vampire, but maybe somebeast really is coming to attack us."

"We should lock the ferret in his room," said Withe. "Make sure he doesn't run loose in the Abbey."

Veil seized on this idea. "Yes! Lock me in! If you won't let me out, you should keep me in here."

"You want to be locked in? Hmm, maybe we shouldn't lock you in, then."

"If he wants the door locked, we can lock it," said the Abbess.

They all went out, bolting the door from the outside.

A few minutes later, Skipper was up on the wall, when he saw a creature approaching the Abbey. It wasn't a vermin though. It was some kind of pony.

"Hello?" she called. "Is anybeast there? My name's Fluttershy."

"Ahoy, Fluttershy!" Skipper called back. "I'm the Skipper of otters. Welcome to Redwall. Just give me a minute and I'll come down and let you in."

"That's okay. I can just fly over the wall." She did that.

Soon, Fluttershy was in Great Hall, talking with the Abbess.

"Has a ferret named Veil arrived here?" she asked.

The Abbess nodded. "He came here just a few hours ago. He's up in the Infirmary now."

"Can I go up and see him?"

"I don't think he wants any visitors," said Bryony. "He told us to lock the door."

Fluttershy felt relieved. At least Veil was safe, and if he was locked in a room by himself, he couldn't hurt anybeast when he turned back into his father.

"He was tellin' us some crazy story about a vampire comin' to attack the Abbey," said Joshy.

"Oh, that's absolutely true!" exclaimed Fluttershy. "In fact, two of my friends are fighting the vampire now!"

Joshy's ears shot up. "I say! Two ponies bein' attacked by a vermin vampire, doesn't bear thinkin' about. We've got to go an' help 'em, wot wot!"

"That's right," said Fluttershy. "There's no time to lose!"

"I'll go with you back to the place where you last saw 'em," Joshy declared. "It will save time if I bring my broom."

Fluttershy didn't understand what he meant. How could a broom save time?

Joshy dashed upstairs to his room and came down with his magic wand and a flying broomstick like the one Harry Potter has. "Let's go, wot!"

Joshy and Fluttershy ran outside. The hare hopped onto his broom and they flew off into the night.


	10. Chapter 10

Joshy followed Fluttershy to the shipwreck of the _Seascarab II._ As they got near the spot they heard sounds of fighting. Whenthey got there they saw Clogg and Lunastill battling each other. They were moving so fast that they were a blur. Time and again the stoat's cutlass clashed against the alicorn's horn. The trees on the streambank had all been torn down in the battle.

Luna backed up and shot a blast of magic at Clogg but he used his vampire reflexes to dodge. The stoat dropped to the ground and did a forward roll towards Luna. He sprang up and slashed her face with his claws. Luna let out a whinny of rage and kicked him in the stomach, but her hard hooves didn't seem to cause Clogg any pain. He swung his cutlass and managed to strike her in the chest. Luna collapsed.

Joshy came to the rescue, shouting a spell. "Flipendo!" It sent Clogg flying through the air before he even had a chance to turn around. The vampire hit a tree and was knocked out.

Joshy and Fluttershy heard a groan. They looked down to see Luna lying on the ground.

When Joshy saw her he let out a yell. "Nightmare Moon!"

"No, she's not Nightmare Moon anymore," Fluttershy assured him. "She's good again now."

"Fluttershy…" Luna moaned.

Instantly the Pegasus was by her side. "Oh, I shouldn't have left you behind!"

"No, you did the right thing," Luna said weakly. "Where is Veil?"

"He's safe at Redwall Abbey."

"Did the vampire bite you?" Joshy asked urgently.

Luna snorted. "Clogg wouldn't want to take any chances on me becoming a vampire like him. He just wanted to make a quick end of me. All he did was cut me up with his cutlass."

"Where's Rainbow Dash?" Fluttershy asked.

"I don't know. I lost sight of her while I was fighting Clogg. I thought I was a match for him, but that was before he became a vampire."

Joshy did a spell with his wand to make a light. He shined it around, illuminating a pair of legs sticking out from under a fallen tree. They were blue.

"Rainbow!" Fluttershy cried. She and Joshy ran around to the other side of the tree and saw Rainbow Dash's arms and head. "Oh no!"

Rainbow's eyes snapped open. "Fluttershy? Is that you?"

"We need to get you back to the Abbey posthaste," said Joshy. "Hang on a tick…" He performed a levitation spell to lift the tree off Rainbow Dash. Then he conjured a pair of stretchers for Rainbow and Luna.

"If Clogg did that much damage to Luna and Rainbow Dash, imagine what he could do to the Redwallers," Fluttershy fretted.

"I never thought you would save my life, Joshy Stag Hare," said Luna.

"If I'd known it was Nightmare Moon I was savin'…" Joshy muttered.

"Don't worry," Fluttershy told her friends. "We'll take you back to Redwall. There are healers there that can fix you up.

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Meanwhile, back at Redwall, Bryony was walking past the Infirmary door when she heard Veil shouting inside. She rushed over to the door.

"Veil? That's your name, right? Are you okay in there?"

Veil didn't answer, so Bryony peeked beneath the door. She saw him crouched on top of his bed, arguing with himself like he was two separate ferrets. He was rapidly switching back and forth between his Veil side and his Swartt Sixclaw side, but Bryony had no idea what was going on.

"Sneaky liddle ponies," he growled in his Swartt Sixclaw voice. "Dey're all liars!"

"No. Not Fluttershy," Veil said in his normal voice.

"Dey'll cheat ya! Hoit ya! Lie!"

"Fluttershy's my friend."

"You don't have any friends, ya liddle punk! Nobeast likes you."

Veil put his paws over his ears. "Not listening. I'm not listening."

"You're a liar an' a thief," Swartt said.

"No!"

"Murderer," Swartt whispered.

"Go away," Veil sobbed.

"Go away?" Swartt broke into a raspy laugh.

"I hate you," Veil said.

"Where would ya be without me? If it wasn't for me, we'd still be down gettin' tortured in Hellgates."

"I don't need you anymore!" Veil cried. "Leave now and never come back!"

"What did ya say?"

"Leave now. And never come back," Veil repeated forcefully.

This time Swartt didn't respond. Veil sat silently on the bed for a few moments. He still felt like himself. Had he driven his evil side away?

"I did it!" he finally exclaimed. "I told him to go away, and he went! And now I'm free!" He jumped down to the floor and began to caper about the room. "Free, free, free," he sang. "Veil is free…"

Abruptly he turned back into Swartt. "Screw you, ya little turd!" Swartt shouted. "Ya can't tell me what ta do!" And with that, he heaved a stool through the Infirmary window. He leaped out the smashed window and ran across the Abbey grounds. Bryony ran to alert the Abbess, but by the time she reached her, Swartt had already slipped through the gates and disappeared into the night to rejoin Clogg.


	11. Chapter 11

Fluttershy, Joshy, Luna, and Rainbow Dash arrived back at Redwall at dawn. Rainbow Dash could see the spires of the red stone building rising into the sky. It was the first time she'd ever seen this inspiring sight. She wished she wasn't in pain so she could appreciate it more fully.

"You hanging in there, Dashie?" Fluttershy asked her.

"Yeah, it takes more than a little sapling to crush this Pegasus," Rainbow responded. She tried to sit up on the stretcher, which Joshy was propelling through the air by means of his wand, but she sank back down with a groan.

"Poor Rainbow Dash. I hope the mice at the Abbey can help her and Luna," Fluttershy said to Joshy.

The hare winked. "Nothin' to worry about, old gel. I've never seen a beast our Sister Withe can't heal. They'll both be up an' flyin' in no time, wot!"

Just then he saw that the gate was open. "I say, that's not good. Has that been unlocked all night?"

"We didn't leave it open," said Fluttershy. "We flew over the walls, remember?"

"So somebeast must've come along an' opened it."

They all went inside the gate. Abbess Meriam and Bryony were standing on the grounds with some other creatures. "Veil is gone!" Bryony cried.

"What?" Fluttershy squeaked.

"I saw him arguing with himself in the Infirmary. Then he broke a window and jumped outside."

"Oh no!" Fluttershy said. "This is terrible! It's just been one disaster after another!"

Sister Withe sniffed. "If you ask me, it's a good thing that ferret's gone. I didn't like the look of him."

"But there's something you don't know about Veil," Fluttershy said. "Sometimes, he turns into, well…"

"He turns into a well?" Joshy gasped.

"What? No, no, he turns into his father."

"Okay, cause I ain't never heard of anybeast turnin' into a well."

"I've never heard of anybeast turning into their father either," said Bryony. "What does that even mean?"

"Remember when we went back in time with Veil?" Fluttershy said to Joshy. "It turns out he didn't really die in the past. Instead, he became his own father and had himself as a son."

"Y'mean Swartt Sixclaw an' Veil Sixclaw were the same beast all along?"

"Yes, and now he keeps switching back and forth between his personalities."

"Why did you not tell us this before?" the Abbess demanded.

"Well, you were supposed to be watching him," Luna shot back, leaping off of her stretcher. "You let him get away!"

The Abbess held up her paw. "Arguing won't get us anywhere. Skipper and his otters are out searching Mossflower for Veil. In the meantime, I can see that you are injured. You must come up to the Infirmary for treatment."

Reluctantly, Luna followed Sister Withe to the Infirmary. Two mice carried Rainbow Dash's stretcher behind them.

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Swartt was running through Mossflower Woods when he bumped into Clogg. "Argh ye matey," said Clogg. "Decided to come back after desertin' a comrade on the field o' battle, eh?" he added sarcastically.

"I dunno what you're talkin' about, bo," Swartt snapped. "One minute I was on da ship wit' you, da next t'ing I know I'm inside da Infoirmary at Redwall Abbey!"

Clogg grabbed him. "You actually managed to get inside the Abbey?"

"Dat's right, which is more'n you've done. How'd ya get dat bump on ya head?"

Clogg let go of Swartt. " _I_ was fighting Nightmare Moon!" he said as he puffed out his chest.

"Nightmare Moon?" Swartt repeated. During their voyage, Clogg had gone on for hours about how someday he was going to get revenge on that "stinking screw-tailed sorrel" for sinking his old ship. "Well, did ya finally croak her?"

"Well, I came pretty close." Clogg quickly changed the subject. "If you found Redwall Abbey, you'd better lead me there, bucko!"

"Okay," Swartt said. "Soon as we get dis job done, we can go our separate ways."


	12. Chapter 12

"A cutlass wound to the chest is no joking matter," said Sister Withe. "It would have killed anybeast who wasn't an alicorn." She was speaking to Luna, who was lying on an Infirmary bed. Rainbow Dash was on another bed nearby. Fluttershy, Bryony, and Joshy were in the room too. Two other mice were also there, nailing boards across the broken window.

"When will I be able to move about again?" the alicorn asked.

"There's no telling. And as for you, Rainbow Dash, you have two broken ribs. You're lucky nothing worse happened if a tree fell on you."

"But I don't wanna be stuck here!" Rainbow Dash complained.

"Yes, we need to help fight the vermin," Luna agreed.

"You've done a great deal already," Bryony said. "If not for you, we wouldn't even know that Clogg and Swartt were coming to attack us."

"Why don't you just regain your energy by givin' creatures nightmares like you did before, Nightmare Moon?" Joshy asked sarcastically.

Luna glared at him. "Don't call me Nightmare Moon. That's not my real name."

"Really? Cause I could have sworn that was what you wanted everybeast to call you the last time we met, wot wot."

"Joshy, what's gotten into you?" said Fluttershy. "I told you, she's not evil anymore."

"Nightmare Moon once threw me in a pit for doin' magic," Joshy said. "Pardon me if I'm not quite ready to forgive her yet, wot. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some cabbage an' fennel bake to make, aye, an' some raspberry cream turnovers. Redwallers don't quit scoffin' tuck just because there's vermin in the woodlands, oh no!" He stalked off to the kitchens.

Luna banged a hoof angrily on her bedside table. She didn't like being reminded of the time when she was evil. "Who does that hare think he is?"

"You don't like him bringing up your mistakes of the past, do you?" Fluttershy asked quietly.

"No," Luna said, not sure what she was getting at.

"Well, maybe Veil feels the same way when you remind him of the bad things he's done," Fluttershy said gently.

Luna digested that. Maybe Fluttershy had a point. How could Veil ever reform when other beasts refused to forgive his former misdeeds?

"Veil must have had some ups and downs in life," said Bryony.

"I knew him better than anypony," said Fluttershy. "In fact, you might say I was his only friend."

"Well, maybe I could be his friend too, if he ever comes back," Bryony said. "I could take care of him."

Take care of Veil? Fluttershy felt vaguely jealous, hearing those words. _She_ had always been the one to take care of Veil. But she was much too polite to express her jealousy out loud.

"Could you maybe tell me some stories about him?" Bryony asked. "Like, how did you meet?"

Fluttershy held out a hoof to the mouse. "Sure. It all started when a badger named Sunflash the Mace came to my town…"

Bryony took Fluttershy's hoof in her paw, and the two of them walked out of the room together.

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"My crew ain't seen hide nor hair of a ferret," Skipper said. He had just returned.

Abbess Meriam's brow wrinkled. "That's troubling. Who knows where he could be, or what he could be up to?"

In fact Swartt was approaching the Abbey right now, along with Clogg. Veil had left the switchblade and pistol behind when he ran to the Abbey, but Clogg had recovered them from the shipwreck after regaining consciousness, and he'd given them back to Swartt.

"Listen up matey, I'm a vampire, so I can't get inside the Abbey unless they invite me in," Clogg whispered.

"Well, dey ain't gonna do dat," said Swartt. "If you come up to dose gates, dey'll send ya packin' up da road!"

"That's wot you think, matey. I've got a plan charted for us. Now cock up yore lugs and listen…"

Soon Clogg was striding right up to the Abbey door. Swartt stayed hidden in a ditch by the road.

The stoat banged on the door with his fat fist. It was not long before a contingent of grim looking Abbey dwellers appeared above him on the walltop. Fixing a friendly smile on his face, Clogg called out a greeting.

"Argh ye mateys! It's goin' to be another scorchin' summer's day again. I wonder, could I have a word with whoever's in charge of this marvelous place?"

Meriam kept her tone polite. "I am the Mother Abbess of Redwall Abbey. What brings you here?"

"Redwall h'Abbey, d'ye say? I ain't never been inside a h'Abbey before."

Skipper of otters thumped his tail on the walltop and muttered, "Aye, an' yore not likely to get inside this 'un!"

"I mean you no 'arm!" Clogg insisted.

"You mean us no 'arm?" Joshy repeated. "Are you threatenin' to rip off all our bally arms? I say, that's goin' it a bit!"

"I'm a poor wretched seafarer who lost his ship in a great storm. I need water an' bread, nothin' more…" Clogg's voice trailed off. He could see they weren't buying his lies.

"I say, I always thought vampires couldn't go outside durin' the day, wot!" said Joshy.

Clogg shook his head. "Nah, that's only vampire bats." Then he realized what he'd just said. "Of course, I wouldn't know anything about vampires, because I'm sure not a vampire, matey."

"Give it up, Captain Clogg," said Joshy. "You may not remember me, but I remember you. I can assure you that you won't be settin' one blinkin' paw inside this Abbey. An' your pal, lyin' doggo in the ditch there, he won't be gettin' in either, wot wot!"

Clogg abandoned all pretense. "But 'e told me that you let 'im inside before."

Swartt walked over. Now that he'd been seen, there was no use hiding. "Awright, listen here. Dis is how it is. We don't really wanna attack dis Abbey, but we need ta kill a certain beast. If you'll send him out to us, we'll croak 'im real quick an' den go away an' leave da rest of ya alone!"

"We would never willingly allow you to kill one of us," said Abbess Meriam.

"Er, but just for the sake of argument, who is it you want to kill, wot?" said Joshy.

Both of the vermin pointed up at Joshy at the same time and said in unison, "It's you!"

Joshy was nonplussed. "Me? I say, why do you want to kill me? What harm have I ever done either of you?"

"Enough of this talk," the Abbess asserted. "Leave at once, both of you."

Swartt began to get angry. "Ya oughta show me some respect! I'm da guy dat croaked Bowfleg!"

Togget the mole appeared on the walltop then. He was chewing wild garlic again. "Gurr, 'ave some o' this, vurments!" He tossed a bulb of garlic right at Clogg's feet.

Vampires don't like garlic. Clogg let out an unearthly screech and sprang backwards into the ditch. He pulled himself back up to his feet and took off south down the road. He was soon lost to sight.

"Ya won't get rid o' me dat easy!" Swartt yelled. He took out his gun and started shooting at the bolt that held the gate closed. It shattered. Nobeast had expected that. Before any of the creatures on the wall had time to react, Swartt had shoved the gate open and dashed through.

Now Swartt Sixclaw was loose in the Abbey grounds. A young mouse was walking in his direction. Swartt squeezed his trigger and shot the mouse right in the eye. The mouse fell to the ground, clutching his face in agony. He didn't die, but his wound would become infected and he would eventually go blind. His name was Simeon.

Swartt saw a ladder leading up to the walltop. He was up it in a flash. He soon found himself face to face with Joshy. Quickly he grabbed the hare and held the gun to his head.

"Don't nobody make a move, or dis rabbet gets it right in da brains- dat is, if he has any!" Swartt evilled. "I'm gonna take ya for a liddle ride, rabbet. A one-way ride, if ya know what I mean."

"I'm a hare, not a rabbit, don't you know…"

Swartt was about to shoot Joshy when he turned back into Veil. Veil threw the gun down. It went off when it landed and the bullet hit Simeon in the other eye.

Veil released Joshy. "What have I done?" he cried in horror. "I can't go on living like this!"

"You don't have to," said a voice.

Veil looked over his shoulder to see Celestia and Twilight flying towards the Abbey. Applejack, Pinkie, and Rarity were running down the road below them.


	13. Chapter 13

Fluttershy and Bryony heard the gunshots and came running out to see what was happening. "Great seasons! What's going on?" Bryony exclaimed. Then they saw Celestia and the others.

"You made it!" Fluttershy cried.

"What happened out here?" Bryony asked.

"Veil turned back into Swartt Sixclaw an' broke in," Joshy said. "He shot that mouse there right in the eye." He pointed at the wounded Simeon.

Togget had climbed down the ladder. "Oi'll walk 'm up to ee Affirmary." He took the mouse's paw and escorted him inside.

Twilight flew down to Fluttershy and gave her a hug. Applejack, Pinkie and Rarity joined them.

"But how did you guys find this place?" said Fluttershy.

"Heeeeh! I showed them the way!" squawked a voice. Fluttershy looked up to see a kestrel hovering in the air near Celestia.

"This is Skarlath," said Celestia. "He knows his way around every inch of Mossflower Woods." (Since in Outcast of Equestria Sunflash befriended Rainbow Dash instead of Skarlath, Skarlath never got killed.)

Fluttershy flew back up on the wall, where Veil was. "Are you all right, Veil?"

Veil was shaking uncontrollably. "No! I'm not all right. I just made a creature go blind."

"It wasn't you that made the mouse go blind, Veil," said Fluttershy. "It was Swartt Sixclaw."

"But Swartt is a part of me."

"Well, he won't be for much longer," said Celestia. "Twilight Sparkle and I completed the serum that will separate you." She pulled a syringe out of her saddlebag.

"How does this work, exactly?" Veil asked.

"When I stick this needle into you, you and Swartt will no longer share a body. Instead, you will be two different ferrets."

"Will Swartt appear right in front of us?"

"Yes, so we'll have to be careful. We should do this outside."

"Let's do it right now, before I turn back into him again!" Veil cried.

Veil and all the ponies, except for Rainbow Dash and Princess Luna, who were still in the Infirmary, went outside the gates. Joshy and Bryony came too. They walked into the woodlands a piece, out of sight of Redwall Abbey. That way Swartt wouldn't be able to get back inside when he appeared.

"Where is my sister Luna?" Celestia asked.

"And where's Rainbow Dash?" Twilight added.

Fluttershy hung her head. "They got hurt. They were fighting Captain Clogg. You know who he is, right?"

"Yes, your other friends told me that he was now a vampire, and he wanted to attack the Abbey," said Celestia.

"He doesn't just want to attack the Abbey," said Joshy. "He an' Swartt came all this way just to kill me! I don't even know why."

"Can all this wait?" Veil was impatient. "I want to get rid of my evil half now."

"You're right, Veil, I'm sorry," said Celestia. "I'll do it now." She raised the syringe.

"Wait a minute," said Veil. "How do I know this won't kill me? Maybe you don't really want to separate me and Swartt. Maybe you really just want to get rid of both of us!"

"Why, the very idea!" Rarity exclaimed.

"Celestia wouldn't do a thang like that," said Applejack.

"You can absolutely trust us, Veil," said Twilight.

Veil took a deep breath. "Okay. Do it fast before I lose my nerve."

Celestia took the serum and injected it into Veil. A cloud of purple smoke rose up and when it cleared, there were two ferrets standing side by side. Veil and Swartt. Good and evil.

"Where in Hellgates am I?" Swartt demanded. He was the one still wearing the black leather jacket. Also he was bigger than Veil.

Veil blinked. "It worked!" he cried. "It actually worked!"

Swartt squinted. "I remember you. You're dat hard faced whelp who was claimin' to be my son. Well, ya ain't no son o' mine!"

"That's right," said Veil. "I'm not your son, because I'm you. I couldn't keep sharing a body with you. It was destroying me."

A wicked smile appeared on Swartt's face. "Actually, bein' separate from me is what's gonna destroy you." And with that, he started choking Veil! Veil struggled in the larger ferret's vicelike grip.

"No!" Fluttershy and Bryony both screamed.

Celestia came to the rescue, running her horn right through Swartt's heart. Swartt dropped Veil and collapsed to the ground.

But suddenly, he stood up again! Everybeast was shocked to see the horn-shaped hole in his chest closing.

"How can this be?" cried Twilight.

Swartt was just as surprised as anyone else. But he knew he was outnumbered. He couldn't fight this whole crowd without any weapons. His switchblade and heater were still inside the Abbey.

"You liddle clip-clops ain't seen da last o' me!" he promised, and then he ran off into the woods.

"Clip clops?" Pinkie Pie repeated. "That's a funny word!"

"Are you okay?" Fluttershy asked Veil.

"I'm fine, just out of breath." The ferret had bruises on his neck left by Swartt's fingers. Fluttershy's own bruises hadn't quite faded either. "I guess we're choke mark twins now."

"We need to get back to the Abbey posthaste," said Joshy. "With the lock on the gate broken, anybeast can get in."

They went back inside. Swartt's weapons were lying on the lawn. "What should we do with these?" Bryony asked.

"I have no use for them," Veil said. "These evil things should never have been brought inside Redwall Abbey." He picked them up and threw them into the Abbey pond.

"Way to go, Veil!" Pinkie Pie cheered.

"The evil in you must really be gone for good," Fluttershy said.

"But just because Swartt's not in Veil's body anymore doesn't mean he's not still out there," Celestia reminded everypony.

"Why didn't he die when you stabbed him with your horn, Princess?" Twilight asked.

"I don't know." Celestia looked very worried. "I don't know."


	14. Chapter 14

Veil yawned. He couldn't remember the last time he'd slept.

"I think you need some rest, Veil," said Bryony. "I'll show you up to a dormitory."

"I don't want to go to bed! It's the middle of the day," Veil protested. But he could not keep the tired tone out of his voice. "My evil father who is actually me from the future is still out there."

"You're in no fit state to face him now," said Celestia gently. "You need sleep."

"Fine," Veil said. "I'll take a quick nap, and then I'll go out and take down Swartt."

Bryony led him up to an unoccupied bedroom. Fluttershy followed.

Veil thought he'd have a hard time falling asleep, but as soon as his head hit the pillow he was out like a light. Fluttershy watched him sleeping.

"He looks so innocent, just like when he was a baby ferret," she said.

"At Redwall we call the baby animals Dibbuns," said Bryony.

Fluttershy leaned over the bed, resting her front hooves on it. "Things are going to be so much better now that all the evil has gone out of him. Veil can come back to Ponyville with me. He can maybe get his old job back at Sugarcube Corner and…" Her voice trailed off as her eyes closed. She had been up all night too.

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Two foxes, Ren and Brool, were roasting apples over a fire in Mossflower Woods. Swartt Sixclaw watched them from behind some bushes. The smell of the apples was making his mouth water, but what really attracted his attention was the sharp spears the foxes had by their sides.

He strode over to the fire and demanded, "Give me all of your stuff."

"Why should we give our vittles to you?" one of the foxes spat. "Ye mangy ferret."

"I'm not talkin' about da food, ya dope," Swartt said. "Gimme dose spears!"

Ren chuckled evilly. "Oh, I'll give you my spear all right." He hurled his spear right into Swartt's throat!

But Swartt was not hurt at all. He pulled the spear out of his neck and flung it right back at the fox, killing him.

The other fox, Brool, was paralyzed with horror. "Ooh! Why did you have to kill my mate Ren like that, we weren't doing you no harm, we were just sitting here by our fire!"

"So will you give me da rest a your stuff, or do I hafta kill you too?"

Brool held up his paws. "Take it! Take it all! Just don't hurt me!"

Swartt went over to Ren's corpse and pulled the spear out. "Ya know, I always hate to leave a job half done." Before Brool realized what this meant, Swartt had stabbed him with the spear too. He went to join his friend at the gates of Dark Forest.

Swartt surveyed the two dead foxes proudly. This was the second time a creature had tried to kill him and been unable to. What did this mean? Was he invincible now? "Dat Discord dude said I'd be invincible when he gave me da locket with my soul in it, but he hasn't done dat yet. So what's goin' on?"

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Applejack went into the Abbey orchard, where animals were harvesting apples. "Y'all need any help?" she asked.

"You don't have to do that," said a squirrel named Sumin. "You're our guest. Let us do the work."

Applejack grinned. "Aw, shucks! It ain't work fer me, it's fun! Lemme show ya a faster way t'do this." She lifted her back legs into the air and kicked a tree. Apples came raining down.

"Great seasons!" ejaculated Sumin. "I wish I could do that! Look, here comes a big babe playing with little babes."

Pinkie Pie ran by with the two otter Dibbuns, Blatt and Scrimmo, on her back.

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"Maybe I'd better leave," Joshy said to the Abbess. They were in Great Hall with Celestia, Twilight, and Rainbow Dash. Celestia had done a spell to heal Rainbow Dash's broken ribs.

"Leave?" the Abbess repeated.

"Leave the Abbey. Those vermin are only here because of me. When that mouse chap got his eyes shot out today, it was my fault. If I go away, the vermin won't bother the rest of you anymore."

"Nonsense!" Meriam exclaimed. "You are a member of our family and a valuable asset to this Abbey. Nobeast can conjure magical food like you. Every creature is your friend. We don't want you to go. The ponies have promised to help us. Soon those two vermin will be gone and everything will be back to normal!"

"Twilight, Rainbow Dash and I are about to go into Mossflower and track Swartt and Clogg down," said Celestia. "Everything will be fine, Joshy, you'll see."


	15. Chapter 15

Clogg hadn't gone very far when he saw an old ruined church. This was the Church of St. Ninian. Nobeast knew who had built it or how long it had been there. It was no longer used as an actual church but sometimes animals would try to live there.

Clogg went up to the church door but couldn't go inside. The crucifix hanging over the door deterred the vampire. Even though he couldn't enter the church, Clogg kept hanging around outside. He smelled fresh blood nearby, the sweetest he'd ever sniffed.

He soon found out he was right when a molemaid came out of the church. Clogg rubbed his paws together wickedly. She would be the perfect creature to help him infiltrate Redwall Abbey.

When the mole saw Clogg she let out a shriek of fright. Clogg said, "Argh ye matey! Don't be afraid, I mean you no 'arm," just like he had to the Redwallers. But he immediately proved himself a liar as he sprang at the mole and bit her throat. He greedily lapped up her blood, holding her tight so she couldn't get away. It tasted even better than Fluttershy's blood.

Then the mole became a vampire too. "Hurr, wot's happening to Oi?" she cried. "Whoi do Oi suddenly 'ave a craving fur blood?"

"Don't alarm yerself, me pretty," said Clogg. "It just means you're a vampire now, like me."

"A vampoire? Bo urr noooo!" She tried to run back inside St. Ninian's but now the cross kept her out too. "Whoi can't Oi goo in?"

"You're gonna have to stay away from crosses if you want to keep yer life!" Clogg guffawed.

"Oi bain't so sure Oi wants to keep moi life if'n Oi be ee vampoire," the mole said sadly.

"Ha harr, well, it ain't so bad. You'll be ten times as strong now, and ten times as fast. And you can only be killed now by a cross or a stake. Otherwise, you'll live forever! Maybe you can use the extra time to learn 'ow to talk properly, ha harr harr!"

The mole started to cry tears of blood like in Vampire Chronicles. Clogg put his arm around her. "Avast now, dry your tears. Your old Uncle Clogg's got a job for you. You're good at digging, right? Of course you are, you're a mole! I need you to dig a tunnel for me. A tunnel that leads into Redwall Abbey."

The mole didn't want to do anything that would hurt the creatures at Redwall. She had attended a feast there once. But she found she had to obey Clogg. He had created her, and now he was her master. She began burrowing into the ground, unable to stop herself.

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Veil and Fluttershy had woken up and were exploring the Abbey. In one room, they found Rarity and Bryony sewing with some Brothers and Sisters. Bryony waved at Veil.

"Wow, Rarity, I guess you can't stop making clothes, even at Redwall," said Fluttershy.

"Oh, we're not sewing clothes, darling," Rarity responded. "I'm helping these mice make a tapestry."

Veil peered at the scraps of cloth scattered everywhere. "It doesn't look like much."

"This is a work in progress," said Bryony. "It'll take seasons and seasons to complete. We probably won't finish in our own lifetimes. Successive generations will have to pick up where we left off."

"Well, what is it of?" he asked.

Bryony got a far off look in her eyes. "This tapestry will depict our founder, Martin the Warrior. It will show how he drove off the vermin horde that enslaved Mossflower with his famous sword."

Just then Princess Luna came in. As an alicorn, she had amazing recuperative powers. Now her wound was only hurting her a little bit and she was okay to walk about. "Veil, I have something to tell you. I apologize for the way I've treated you, not trusting you. It made me mad when Joshy kept calling me Nightmare Moon, reminding me of my past. Then I realized I've been doing the same thing to you."

"It's okay," said Veil. "I don't blame you for holding a grudge against me after what I did to your sister. I know I'd have a hard time forgiving somebeast who hurt Fluttershy."

"But Celestia told me about how she removed the evil part of yourself from you," said Luna. "I'd like to give you another chance. When we've defeated Swartt Sixclaw, we're all going back to Equestria. You are welcome to come back with us. You're not an Outcast anymore."

"Did you hear that, Veil? You can come home!" Fluttershy squealed. But Veil didn't answer right away. He was quiet.

"Maybe he doesn't want to come back to Equestria," said Bryony. "From what I heard, he wasn't too happy there. Maybe he'd rather stay here and make a new home at Redwall Abbey. I'm sure Abbess Meriam would let him stay."

"Don't be silly," said Fluttershy. "Of course Veil wants to come home with me, don't you, Veil?"

Veil shook his head from side to side. "I… don't know. I mean, Ponyville is a nice place, but all the creatures there are so different from me. There are no other ferrets there."

"But there's no other ferrets at Redwall either," Fluttershy reminded him.

"Well, I'm going to think about it for a while," said Veil.

"You don't have to decide right away," said Luna. "We won't be leaving for a while."

"Okay. I'll just take some time to think it over."

"Well, that's fair enough," said Fluttershy sadly.

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Swartt was walking through the forest when he came face to face with his old enemy, Sunflash the Mace! The Badger Lord was on his way to visit Redwall. He didn't know about all the crazy stuff that was going on there right now.

When Sunflash saw Swartt, he couldn't believe his eyes. "What? You're dead!"

"Actually, you're da one dat's gonna be dead," said Swartt. He lifted his spear. Sunflash grabbed his mace.

Swartt sneered. "You act brave when you're armed, but you're too scared ta face me wit'out dat stick in your paw. I thought badgers were true warriors. Why don't ya throw down your mace an' meet me in paw t' claw combat? Or are ya just a big cowardly stripedog?"

"Nobeast calls Sunflash the Mace a coward! Eulalia!"

Sunflash dropped his mace and rushed at Swartt. He dealt the ferret a blow that felled him to the ground, but Swartt just got right back up.

"Didn't hoit! C'mon, Scumtripe, you can do better'n dat, I've been waitin' too long for dis!"

The fight continued for a long time. Sunflash battered at Swartt with his enormous paws, and raked at him with his claws, but to no effect. Even though Sunflash was physically much stronger than Swartt, nothing he did could hurt the ferret. Eventually he collapsed from exhaustion.

Swartt grinned fiendishly and picked up his spear from the ground. He stood over Sunflash, about to drive the spear into the badger's heart.

"I thought you said we weren't gonna use weapons," Sunflash gasped.

"I lied," said Swartt. "Ya oughta expect dat from me by now."

But before he could drive the fatal thrust, a voice called, "Sixclaw! What are you doing?"

It was Discord.


	16. Chapter 16

"What's it look like I'm doin'?" Swartt snarled. "I'm killin' da stripedog!"

"Remember what I told you?" Discord said. "I said you could only kill Sunflash the Mace _after_ you had already killed Joshy Stag Hare. And you haven't done that yet, have you?"

"No, but dere's too many other beasts in dat Abbey!"

Discord picked the ferret up by his neck. "I don't care. Tunnel your way in, burn your way in, knock on the door and pretend to be delivering pizza, just get inside Redwall somehow and kill that hare!"

He dropped Swartt on the ground and Swartt ran back towards Redwall.

No sooner had Swartt disappeared than Celestia, Twilight, and Rainbow Dash arrived on the scene. They had gotten there just in time to hear what Discord had said.

"Discord!" Twilight shouted. "You're the one who sent Swartt Sixclaw to kill Joshy?"

"I knew he was still trouble!" said Rainbow Dash. "He probably never really reformed at all!"

"Why would you want to kill your own son?" Celestia asked.

Discord held up his mismatched hands. "Wait, I can explain. It's true I sent that vermin to kill Joshy Stag Hare, but I have no intention of actually letting him do it."

"Then why did you tell Swartt to kill Joshy?" Twilight demanded.

"Well, you know, Joshy and I don't exactly have the best father-son relationship. Probably because I watched him grow up as a slave and did nothing about it. After your friend Fluttershy showed me the magic of friendship, I've been trying to make things right with Joshy and get back in touch with him, but he doesn't want anything to do with me. So I thought if I saved him from deadly peril, he'd be grateful enough to give me another chance at being his father. But there weren't any deadly perils at Redwall, so I decided to create one of my own to rescue Joshy from. I brought Swartt back to life and got Clogg to bring him to Mossflower."

"But why did you make Swartt impossible to kill?" asked Sunflash.

Discord frowned. "I didn't make him impossible to kill. What are you talking about?"

"When I was fighting him just now, I couldn't hurt him. Every time I hit him it just glanced off."

"The same thing happened when I tried to stab him with my horn," said Celestia. "Right after I injected the serum into him that separated him from Veil."

Discord groaned. "You injected the Serum of Good and Evil into him? Well, you've done it now!"

"You know about the Serum of Good and Evil?" said Twilight.

"Know about it? I invented it! It's the perfect thing to cause chaos. Now Swartt Sixclaw is just the physical manifestation of Veil Sixclaw's evil nature. He's no longer a being with a soul, so he can't be harmed!"

"Well, what can we do to stop him?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"I have no idea."

"We should catch up with him before he gets back to Redwall," said Celestia. "Let's go!"

"I'll try and keep up with you as best I can," said Sunflash. He couldn't fly like the ponies, and he was already exhausted from fighting Swartt before, but he knew he had to do whatever he could to help.

Celestia, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Discord began flying back toward Redwall, with Sunflash trailing behind on the ground.

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Back at Redwall, Veil and Fluttershy were heading down to the kitchens. As they passed through Great Hall, they saw a sword hanging on the wall. "Look, Veil," Fluttershy said. "That must be the sword of Martin the Warrior."

When Veil looked at the sword, he thought he saw a mouse's face reflected in the blade. He turned around but there was nobeast behind him except Fluttershy.

They went to the kitchens, where Joshy was cooking supper.

"How are you feelin', young Veil, eh wot?" asked Joshy.

"Well, the truth is, I don't feel so good," said Veil. "Swartt is still out there, and all because of me. Who knows what he could be doing?"

"He's not part of you anymore, Veil," said Fluttershy.

"Y'know, you an' I are alike in many ways," Joshy said to the ferret. "We both have horrible fathers, an' we've both been searchin' all our lives for a home. I finally found one at Redwall Abbey, an' it can be your home too if you want it to be."

But Veil wasn't ready to think about where he wanted to settle yet. He changed the subject. "Do you need any help?"

"Help? Oh, y'mean help cookin'. Well, you could start cuttin' up these carrots for me, wot wot."

Veil took a knife and began to chop the carrots. Suddenly a thing happened that was bad and not good. Veil's knife paw slipped and he accidentally cut his own hand. "Ow!"

"I say, what happened, sah?" Joshy asked. Then he saw the wound. "Well, that's nothin' too serious, old chap. Here, let me put a jolly old bandage on it for you."

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Swartt could see the top of Redwall in the distance. Suddenly he felt a pain in his paw. It was the first time he felt pain since becoming separate from Veil. He examined the injured paw. A little cut had appeared there, even though he hadn't been touching anything sharp. But it wasn't too bad. He pulled a big leaf from a tree and wrapped it around his paw to stop the bleeding, then continued towards the Abbey. He wasn't going to let anything interfere with his plans.


	17. Chapter 17

When Swartt got up to Redwall Abbey, there were otters patrolling the walls. One of them saw him and shouted an alarm. Then all the otters began peppering Swartt with javelins and sling stones. But even when they hit him, they didn't do any damage. Skipper himself hurled a javelin that went right through Swartt's footpaw, but he just pulled it out and continued advancing to the gate.

The lock was still broken, but there was an otter standing by the gate. That didn't bother Swartt, though. He stabbed the otter with his spear, killing him. Then he stepped over the body and pushed his way through the door.

A scene of panic greeted him inside. Animals were running around in fear. The apple pickers were trying to get back inside the main building. Pinkie Pie was still carrying the otter twins on her back. She was running for the Abbey, hoping to get them to safety.

"Yew git those little uns inside, Pinkie," called Applejack. "Ah'll hold 'im off!"

She galloped towards Swartt, knocking him over. She didn't hurt the ferret but she did manage to break his spear. Applejack placed a hoof on Swartt's chest, pinning him to the ground. Swartt scooped up a handful of dirt and tossed it into Applejack's eyes. This disorientated the pony momentarily and she lifted her hoof for a second. That was just long enough for Swartt to scramble to his feet. He scratched Applejack across the face with his six-clawed paw.

Sumin the squirrel had found an old bow. He shot an arrow that hit Swartt in the back of the head, but the ferret didn't even notice.

Swartt broke away from Applejack and ran around the side of the Abbey. Applejack, Sumin, and Skipper chased after him, but he had a head start. He found a window and smashed the glass with his fist. Then he climbed inside.

Joshy, Fluttershy, and Veil were still cooking in the kitchen when Swartt jumped through the kitchen window. He had shards of glass sticking out of him, but this didn't affect him at all.

"It's da end of da line, rabbet!" he evilled at Joshy.

Joshy didn't waste time saying that he was a hare, not a rabbit, or that "rabbit" doesn't have an e in it. He grabbed his magic wand from the counter and shouted, "Flipendo!" Swartt went flying through the air and landed on a table full of pies. The table collapsed under him.

Swartt got up, covered in pastry. "Nice trick. Soon ya won't be doin' any more of dose."

"I won't let you hurt him," said Veil.

Swartt laughed. "What can you do ta stop me, ya little squirt?"

Then Veil noticed that Swartt's left paw was wrapped in a leaf, just like his own left paw was wrapped in a bandage. "What did you do to your paw?"

"None a your business, punk," Swartt spat.

Joshy shot some spells and curses at Swartt, to no effect. The ferret picked up a sharp knife and began advancing on the hare.

"Why isn't it working?" Fluttershy cried.

"I don't know!" Joshy yelled.

Fluttershy wasn't a violent creature, but her friend Joshy was being threatened. She had to do something. She flew at Swartt and tried to strike him, but it didn't do any good. Swartt just grabbed her and put the knife to her throat. Fluttershy screamed.

"Drop your magic stick, rabbet, or da liddle pony gets it," Swartt said, running the knife along Fluttershy's chin. Joshy had to obey. He dropped his wand on the floor.

"Leave Fluttershy alone!" Veil shouted, feeling a sense of déjà vu. He ran at Swartt. Swartt tripped him and he fell to the ground, breaking a tooth on the hard stone floor. Then a funny thing happened. Swartt spit a tooth out of his own mouth.

Veil sat up just in time to see Swartt's tooth fall on the floor. "Hmm, that's funny," he thought. "When I lost a tooth, so did he."

Veil gave his own face a light slap. He noticed Swartt wince as though he was the one who had been slapped. Then Veil decided to try something drastic. He pressed his paw onto a hot stovetop. Swartt let go of Fluttershy and screamed in pain as a burn mark appeared on his own paw.

"What's happening? Veil, what are you doing?" Fluttershy shouted.

"It looks like the only way to hurt him is by hurting me," said Veil. Suddenly he knew what he had to do. He dashed out of the kitchen. Fluttershy flapped after him.

Swartt mimicked Veil's voice. " _I won't let ya hoit 'im._ Looks like he was a coward after all. I don't know how dat dope ever managed to toin into me. Just me an' you now, rabbet." He picked up the knife again and tackled Joshy.

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Veil ran across Great Hall to the wall where Martin's sword was hanging. He grabbed a chair and pulled it over to the wall. He jumped up and grabbed the sword.

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Joshy struggled with Swartt, trying to keep the knife from piercing him as they rolled across the kitchen floor.

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"Veil, no!" Fluttershy cried as she realized what Veil was up to.

"I'm sorry," he said. "It's the only way." And with that, he plunged the great sword of Martin the Warrior into his own chest.

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Even though Veil and Swartt no longer shared a body, they still shared the same soul. In the kitchen, Swartt collapsed on top of Joshy as if he had been stabbed. The hare pushed the ferret's body off of him and staggered to his feet. He looked to see who had saved him, but there was nobeast there except for the dying Swartt Sixclaw on the floor.

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Fluttershy held Veil in her arms as he smiled weakly up at her, blood flowing from his chest. "I think we've done this before," he said.

Fluttershy was sobbing uncontrollably. "Oh, Veil! You sacrificed yourself _again._ "

"I love you, Fluttershy," Veil said. His eyes closed, and his heart stopped beating.

Thus ended the lives of Swartt Sixclaw the Warlord and Veil Sixclaw the Outcast. This time for good.


	18. Chapter 18

Joshy watched Swartt die. He had no clue what was going on. He was just about to go look for Veil and Fluttershy when Clogg came crashing through the broken window. The mole had finished her tunnel, with her super vampire speed, and it had come out right by the kitchen.

Clogg knocked Joshy to the ground. Then he drew his cutlass. "Argh ye matey!" he said. "Now I've got yer right where I want yer. I'm going to kill you just like Discord ordered. Then he'll tell me the location of his secret hidden treasure, shiver me timbers!"

"Discord ordered?" Joshy repeated.

Suddenly there was a stake sticking out of Clogg's heart. He fell to the ground dead, revealing Discord standing behind him.

"I saved you, son," Discord said, offering Joshy a hand to pull him up.

Joshy refused to take Discord's hand. "Yeah, you saved me all right. From the vampire that _you_ sent after me to kill me!"

"Well, I was never actually going to let him kill you," Discord said.

Joshy jumped to his feet. "Oh, I see! You weren't actually goin' to let him kill me! Jolly good. An' perhaps it will snow this evenin', it bein' midsummer, wot!"

"No need to be sarcastic," said Discord.

"Why did you have to come here? You were fine with leavin' me alone when I was a slave at Marshank! Why couldn't you just let me have a peaceful life here at Redwall?"

"Well, if it weren't for me, you wouldn't have your peaceful life at Redwall."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Joshy snapped.

"Remember how I tricked Martin into killing Rose? If I hadn't done that, Martin would have gone back to Noonvale with her, and he never would have come to Mossflower and founded Redwall. All the creatures living at Redwall Abbey today have me to thank!"

"I doubt the reason you made Martin kill Rose was so he would build Redwall," Joshy said. "You just wanted to cause trouble. That's all you ever do, wot! You don't care about anybeast but yourself!"

"I care about you, Joshy," said Discord. "I want to have a better relationship with you. That's why I…"

"Why you sent a gangster an' a vampire to kill me?" Joshy interrupted. Discord tried to say something else, but Joshy cut him off. "You know what? You're right about one thing. If it weren't for you, Redwall wouldn't exist. An' I'm not so sure I want to live in a place that exists because of you, wot!"


	19. Chapter 19

A crowd had gathered around Fluttershy, who was still holding the dead Veil, weeping over him.

Celestia, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Sunflash rushed in. "Oh, Fluttershy, what happened?" Twilight asked.

"Veil killed himself," Fluttershy said.

"What? Why would he do that?" cried Rainbow Dash.

"He figured out that the only way to hurt Swartt was by hurting himself. Before I could stop him, he grabbed this sword and stabbed himself."

"Well, did Swartt die too?" asked Sunflash.

Joshy nodded. "Aye, he did. I saw it meself."

"Poor Veil," said Bryony.

"Yes, poor Veil," Discord agreed. "Maybe if I'd gotten here in time, I could have figured out a way to kill Swartt without Veil having to die as well."

"Just shut up, Discord!" Joshy shouted. "We don't want to hear anything from you, wot!"

"Wait, who is this?" the Abbess asked confusedly, looking at Discord.

Discord lowered his head, if you can call that thing on his shoulders a "head." "I'm the one responsible for all this trouble. I was the one who brought Swartt Sixclaw back to life, and sent him and Captain Clogg here."

"But why?" Fluttershy asked. "Isn't Joshy your son? Why would you send vermin to kill him?"

"I've been trying to get back in touch with Joshy for the past few years," said Discord. "I wanted to make up for being a bad father in the past. I sent Joshy letters, but he never answered them. So I thought if I could save Joshy's life, he would stop hating me. Only his life wasn't in danger, so I created a situation where his life would be in danger."

"Well, that wasn't a good idea," said Applejack. "Ya cain't build yore relationship with yore son on lies."

"My plan was to stop Swartt and Clogg from killing Joshy before they hurt anybeast. But things didn't go quite the way I wanted them to. I didn't expect the ferret to start switching back and forth between Swartt and Veil, and I certainly didn't expect Celestia to separate them with that serum."

"Because of you, an otter is dead and a mouse is blind," Celestia said sternly.

"Well, like I said, things didn't turn out the way I planned. I'm sorry, everybeast," Discord said. And then he vanished. None of them saw him again for a long time.

"Wow. Discord hasn't done anything that terrible for a long time," said Fluttershy. "I thought maybe he had changed."

"Discord will never change," said Joshy. "If you ask me, he's worse than Swartt Sixclaw an' Captain Clogg put together, wot!"

"Well, he did save your life in the end," Bryony pointed out.

Joshy snorted. "He's also the one who put it in danger! I hope I never see his ugly face again!"

Just then, Skipper and one of his otters came into the hall, dragging a mole along with them. She was the mole that Clogg had turned into a vampire.

"We found this character sneakin' around outside," said Skipper. "She looks like she could be a vampire."

"Buhurr, Oi'm so sorry," the mole wailed. "Ee stoater bit Oi and turned Oi into ee vampoire. Ee maked Oi dig ee tunnel into ee h'Abbey fur 'im. Oi didn't want ter do it!"

Abbess Meriam patted her head. "There, there. Clogg is dead now. He won't be able to hurt you anymore."

"So you'm ain't mad with Oi?"

"No, I'm not mad at you. It wasn't your fault."

"Thankee," the mole said. "And if'n ee h'otters will koindly let Oi go, Oi won't bother you'm goodbeasts no more."

The otters released her, and she slunk outside. Because moles are not carnivores, she would find she could get by without drinking the blood of other animals. Instead, she would roam around Mossflower sucking the juice out of vegetables and fruits she found.

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The next morning, a funeral was held for Veil. Everybeast was there, except for Veil, who was being buried. Fluttershy spoke a few words over Veil's coffin.

"In his own way, Veil was as great a hero as Martin the Warrior. His conflict wasn't with external forces, but with himself. He was fighting against his own evil nature. In the end, he sacrificed himself and chose good over evil. He was a brave ferret, and I'll miss him."

Not long after, the ponies prepared to leave. They were going back to Equestria.

The Redwallers stood at the gate to bid the ponies farewell.

"Goodbye," said Abbess Meriam. "I hope we'll meet again someday in happier times."

"I hope so too," said Celestia.

Applejack sighed. "Mah heart an' stomach are longin' to stay in this place forever, but Ah know Ah've got to go home. Still, Ah promise Ah'll return here someday, an' that's the honest truth!"

"I think we all will," said Twilight. "Redwall is a wonderful place."

Joshy was in the crowd that watched the ponies leave. He waved goodbye with the rest. An hour later, he left Redwall himself. If Discord had not caused Rose's death in _Martin and the Alicorns_ , Martin would probably have gone back to Noonvale with her, and then he wouldn't have come to Mossflower and built Redwall, just as Discord had said. So in a way, Discord was right when he said Redwall wouldn't exist without him. Joshy had been trying hard to forget about Discord, but now living at Redwall would make it impossible. So he conjured a pile of magical food and left it in the kitchen for one last supper, along with a note explaining why he was leaving.

So Joshy Stag Hare began a new life as a wandering hermit. Eventually, he was captured by searats and forced to work on a ship, until he was shipwrecked off the coast of Africa. But that's another story.

THE END


End file.
